The Pentagon will adopt a new strategy that for the first time orders the military to anticipate that future conflicts will include a complex mix of conventional, set-piece battles and campaigns against shadowy insurgents and terrorists, according to senior officials. The shift is intended to assure that the military is prepared to deal with a spectrum of possible threats, including computer network attacks, attempts to blind satellite positioning systems, strikes by precision missiles and roadside bombs, and propaganda campaigns waged on television and the Internet.

--New York Times

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

McChrystal Urges Greater Protection of Afghan Civilians - Associated Press. US Gen. Stanley McChrystal said that American and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops must make a "cultural shift" away from being a force designed for high intensity combat and instead make protecting Afghan civilians their first priority. The newly arrived four-star commander said Wednesday he hopes to install a new military mindset by drilling into troops the need to reduce the number of Afghan civilians killed in combat. Gen. McChrystal is expected to formally announce new combat rules within days that will order troops to break away from fights - if they can do so safely - if militants are firing from civilian homes. One effect of the new order will be that troops may have to wait out insurgents instead of using force to oust them, he said. "Traditionally American forces are designed for conventional, high-intensity combat," Gen. McChrystal said during a visit to Camp Leatherneck, a new US Marine base housing thousands of newly deployed Marines in southern Helmand province. "In my mind what we've really got to do is make a cultural shift."

Waziristan Battle Key in Fighting Taliban - Sara A. Carter, Washington Times. Key advisers to the Obama administration are warning of a violent summer for Pakistan as its forces prepare to enter the rugged tribal areas of North and South Waziristan for a showdown with the Taliban and al Qaeda. The two Waziristans form a nexus for Taliban fighters along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. And with the US surge in Afghanistan under way, a Pakistani military success on its side of the border could represent the turning point in a war that has gone badly for all three nations. Pakistan's army has been humiliated repeatedly by Taliban fighters in past, especially in the Waziristans, making the upcoming offensive a test for the key US ally. Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar who chaired a review of Pakistan-Afghanistan strategy for President Obama in the early days of his administration, warned that Pakistan faces a tough enemy. "We can certainly hope that Pakistan has turned the corner," Mr. Riedel said. "But experience should encourage us to be somewhat skeptical." He added: "We've seen some encouraging signs, but it's a little premature to call this a victory yet."

Strike Reportedly Missed Chief of Pakistani Taliban by Hours - Pir Zubair Shah and Sabrina Tavernese, New York Times. A United States drone strike on a funeral in Pakistan’s tribal areas missed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, by hours on Tuesday, a Pakistani security official said Wednesday. Mr. Mehsud was not present at the time of the attack, but had gone to pay his respects to a Taliban commander killed in another American drone strike earlier the same day, the official said. Though the strike on the funeral appeared to have included only two midlevel Taliban leaders among the scores killed, it presented a clear blow to Mr. Mehsud’s operation, showing the deadly proximity of the drone attacks to his areas and even the possibility that he was a target. The Pakistani military has stepped up its operations against Mr. Mehsud and his followers in South Waziristan, mostly with airstrikes of its own.

Pakistani Taliban Leader Survives Strike, Residents Say - Zulfiqar Ali, Los Angeles Times. The chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mahsud, and close associates attended the funeral of a militant commander in the country's tribal areas but left before a suspected US drone attack that killed dozens of people, residents said Wednesday. The area where the attack occurred, the Bekh Mary Langara region of South Waziristan, is remote and there was no independent confirmation of the number of casualties. But residents said about 80 people, at least 30 of them militants, died in the attack Tuesday. Doctors at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Miram Shah, North Waziristan, said that 27 people wounded in what was believed to be a missile strike had been brought in for treatment. The wounded included some children, they said. Reports said that senior Taliban commander Maulvi Sangeen Zadran, who also was at the funeral, had been killed, but militant sources denied that.

Afghan Leader Outmaneuvers Election Rivals - Dexter Filkens, New York Times. With a nationwide election only weeks away, the paradox of President Hamid Karzai has never seemed more apparent: he is at once deeply unpopular and likely to win. Mr. Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, is blamed by many for the failures that have plagued the American-led mission here in the past eight years, from the resurgence of the Taliban to the explosion of the poppy trade. Yet at the same time, Mr. Karzai enjoys a commanding lead in the race for the presidency, to be decided in a nationwide election on Aug. 20. Since the beginning of the year, Mr. Karzai has deftly outmaneuvered a once formidable array of opponents, either securing their backing or relegating them to the status of long shots.

Kyrgyzstan Ratifies US Base Accord - Michael Schwirtz, New York Times. Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament ratified an agreement on Thursday to allow the United States to maintain operations at an airport that has become a key support base and transit hub for NATO forces in Afghanistan. The vote was unanimous, with 75 deputies in the 90-seat body supporting and none opposing the measure, according to the Parliament’s Web site. It was considered largely a formality since President Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev’s party holds a majority. The vote finalizes an agreement that essentially reversed a decision by Kyrgyzstan last February to evict American forces from the Manas Air Base, apparently under pressure from Russia. That would have hampered the war effort in Afghanistan at a time of increased military activity there.

IRAQ

In Iraq, a Different Struggle for Power - Anthony Shadid, Washington Post. Although Iraq's parliamentary elections are not until January, the campaign has begun, and Maliki has shown a determination to fight with a tenacity and ruthlessness borrowed from the handbook of Iraq's last strongman, Saddam Hussein. From Diyala, where men under Maliki's command have arrested and threatened to detain a host of his rivals, to Basra, where security forces have swept up scores of his opponents since January, the message is: cooperate or risk his wrath. Although Iraq's sectarian war has largely ended, and the Sunnis feel they lost, another struggle for power, perhaps no less perilous, has begun in earnest. Maliki has resorted to a more traditional notion of politics in which violence is simply another form of leverage. His goal is simple -- to ensure he emerges as prime minister again after the vote. To allies, he is what Iraq needs, a proponent of law in a state still without order.

Iraqis Rebuilding Lives in War-torn Areas - Richard Tomkins, Washington Times. Mustapha Eleiwi Jasem stood on the fringe of this village along the Diyala River and stared at the destruction. Nearby was a flattened clump of concrete - the remains of what once had been his home - and the flimsy, torn tent in which he and his family now live. In the distance, in his mind's eye, was the life the farmer hopes to reclaim. With US troops due to pull out of Iraqi cities in a week amid periodic spurts in terrorist attacks, Iraq faces the task of resettling hundreds of thousands of refugees in the neighborhoods they fled to escape sectarian attacks. "We had to run away because of the violence in the area," Mr. Jasem said. "Al Qaeda was killing people, and you could [also] get killed by government soldiers while in the field because they didn't know who you were. "We were strangers there," in Baqouba, the provincial capital where Mr. Jasem and his family sought shelter for a year. "It was hard for us to live and work. Here we are home ... it's hard ... things will get better."

Market Blast Kills More Than 75 in Baghdad's Sadr City - Ernesto Londoño and Zaid Sabah, Washington Post. A powerful bomb killed more than 75 people Wednesday night at a market in Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shiite neighborhood, casting doubt on the readiness of Iraq's security forces to keep a latent insurgency in check as US troops pull out of the capital and other cities. The blast, the second in Iraq in less than a week to kill more than 70 people, happened six days before the June 30 deadline for US troops to retreat from urban outposts, the first of three withdrawal deadlines mandated under a security agreement. The blast at the Mredi bird market occurred shortly after sundown, when the area was crowded with residents out shopping after the summer day's scorching heat had subsided.

Bomb Kills at Least 60 in Baghdad Market - Alissa J. Rubin and Duraid Adnan, New York Times. A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded Wednesday evening in the Sadr City section of Baghdad, killing at least 60 people in a market as it was filled with shoppers, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry. It was at least the third bombing in two weeks to cause double-digit casualties in Shiite communities. On Saturday, a truck bomb in Taza, a Shiite Turkmen area in northern Iraq, killed at least 68 people. On June 10, a car bomb exploded outside Nasiriya, the capital of a predominantly Shiite province in southern Iraq where bombs are rare, killing at least 28 people and inciting a near riot among survivors who threw stones at the police, blaming them for lax security. The bombing on Wednesday occurred just six days before the American forces officially withdraw from Iraqi cities, towns and villages, as required under the Iraqi-American security agreement. In Baghdad, many of the troops have already withdrawn, and whatever preventive effect they had may well be fast evaporating. In their absence, insurgent groups appear to be beginning to test the security system now run almost wholly by Iraqis.

Explosion in Baghdad Kills Dozens, Days Before US Pullout - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. An explosion at a market in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood killed at least 69 people Wednesday evening, less than a week before US combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from Iraqi cities. The bomb, hidden under some vegetables, went off around 7 p.m., when the market area was crowded with Iraqis taking advantage of the cooler evening weather, according to an Iraqi military spokesman. The attack comes as the June 30 deadline for American combat forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities approaches. The date was set in a security agreement between Iraq and the US that was approved last year. The Iraqi government has made June 30 an official holiday, and officials have hailed the transition as evidence of the competency of Iraqi security forces.

Baghdad Bombing Kills at Least 78, Injures 145 - Saif Hameed and Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times. A bomb in a sprawling Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Baghdad killed at least 78 people Wednesday and wounded 145, highlighting the danger of Iraq slipping back into violence after the deadline for US combat troops to leave its cities - now less than a week away. It was unclear who was responsible for the bomb, which was hidden in a motorcycle with a vegetable cart attached. Some blamed Sunni Muslim insurgents with Al Qaeda in Iraq or remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, but others raised the possibility that the bombing was the result of disputes among Shiite factions. In either case, such bloodshed presents a major challenge for Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

IRAN

Protest Met With Force Near Iran's Parliament - Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post. Riot police and pro-government militiamen used clubs and tear gas to break up an opposition demonstration in front of the Iranian parliament Wednesday after the nation's supreme leader denounced what he described as pressure tactics aimed at overturning the recent disputed presidential election and warned that "lawlessness" would not be tolerated. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's ultimate political and religious authority, told a group of lawmakers that "neither the system nor the people will submit to bullying" over the election. In televised remarks, he called for the "restoration of order," adding that breaking the law would lead to "dictatorship." "Everyone should respect the law. Once lawlessness becomes a norm, things will be complicated and the interests of people will be undermined," Khamenei said.

Iran Arrests 70 Professors After Meeting with Opposition Leader - Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. Authorities arrested 70 university professors after a meeting with an opposition leader, a dissident website announced today as state-controlled broadcast outlets intensified a media blitz against the West. Iran's supreme leader vowed Wednesday that he would neither reconsider vote results nor bow to public pressure over the disputed reelection of his ally, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who ran and lost against Ahmadinejad in the marred vote and emerged as the opposition figurehead, along with his backer Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were meeting with lawmakers in an effort to quell the unrest, an official told an Iranian news agency.

Iran Protesters Alter Tactics to Avoid Death - Eli Lake, Washington Times. Iran's pro-democracy movement is changing strategy and will use smaller and more dispersed demonstrations to try to protect protesters from security forces, who dissidents now say have killed nearly 250 people in the past 10 days. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a prominent Iranian filmmaker who is serving as a spokesman in the West for opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, told The Washington Times that the opposition movement is also asking Iranians all over the world to light candles in silent protest Friday to commemorate Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman killed by security forces Saturday. Her slaying, captured on video and sent around the world via the Internet, has become a symbol of the protest movement and of the Iranian government's crackdown on those disputing the purported landslide victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As Crackdown Goes On, Ahmadinejad Assails Obama - Nazila Fathi and Alan Cowel, New York Times. Lashing out at American criticism of what was officially depicted as a landslide victory in Iran’s disputed presidential elections, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assailed President Obama on Thursday, telling him to stop interfering in Iran’s affairs and accusing him of striking the same hostile tone as his predecessor, George W. Bush. Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks, quoted on the semi-official Fars news agency, came as reports suggested that more than a third of Iran’s 290 Parliament members had snubbed a victory party for him Wednesday night and as opposition figures said 70 academics had been arrested after meeting with the main opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi.

Division Deals Blow to Iran's Opposition - Chip Cummins, Wall Street Journal. Clashes between security services and demonstrators erupted again late Wednesday in central Tehran, even as state media said one unsuccessful presidential candidate dropped his objections to the June 12 elections, dealing a significant blow to the opposition's so-far united front. Amid the domestic unrest - the worst since the Iranian revolution 30 years ago - Tehran scrambled to demonstrate its military might to the rest of the world. The Iranian air force said Wednesday it had successfully tested a new line of sophisticated bombs and radar-evading aircraft in a three-day exercise over the Persian Gulf. Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told state media the Iranian military stood ready to repel any attack.

Hope Fades But Anger Is Alive as Iran's Rulers Crack Down - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Standing in Tehran's grand Vali-e Asr Street amid a sea of green, the opposition's signature color, Mehrdad was sure Iran was on the verge of a change for the better. He pulled out his cellphone and started filming the crowd around him: the girls in green head scarves, the ladies in traditional chador with green bands around their wrists, the middle-aged couple holding hands as they marched. All were supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the man Mehrdad was certain would be the next president of Iran. That was two weeks ago. Now everything has changed.

Ahmadinejad Reaps Benefits of Stacking Key Iran Agencies With His Allies - Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has maintained a markedly low profile since Iran’s disputed presidential election erupted into bloody street protests. But analysts said the crackdown now taking place across Iran suggested that Mr. Ahmadinejad had succeeded in creating a pervasive network of important officials in the military, security agencies, and major media outlets, a new elite made especially formidable by support from one important constituent, Iran’s supreme leader himself. Mr. Ahmadinejad has filled crucial ministries and other top posts with close friends and allies who have spread ideological and operational support for him nationwide. These analysts estimate that he has replaced 10,000 government employees to cement his loyalists through the bureaucracies, so that his allies run the organizations responsible for both the contested election returns and the official organs that have endorsed them.

Iran's Top Leader Digs in Heels on Election - Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. Iran's supreme leader vowed Wednesday that he would neither reconsider vote results nor bow to public pressure over the disputed reelection of his ally, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as state-controlled broadcast outlets intensified a media blitz against the West. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who ran and lost against Ahmadinejad in the marred vote, along with his backer Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were meeting with lawmakers in an effort to quell the unrest, an official told an Iranian news agency. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's ultimate political and military authority, decried "lawlessness" after demonstrators took to the streets to dispute Ahmadinejad's reelection in a June 12 vote that they and many independent analysts say was suspiciously out of sync with previous voting patterns and Iran's demographics.

Iran Supreme Leader's Son Seen as Power Broker with Big Ambitions - Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times. There are few anecdotes about him, and pictures, at least ones that have appeared in public, are scarce. But Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's supreme leader, wields considerable power and is a key figure in orchestrating the crackdown against anti-government protesters, analysts say. The younger Khamenei operates tucked behind an elaborate security structure, an overlapping world that stretches from Iran's Revolutionary Guard corps to the motorcycle-riding Basiji militiamen. Analysts and former dissidents describe him as the gatekeeper for his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a reclusive son whose political instincts were sharpened in a post-revolutionary Iran where affiliations with security and intelligence services were just as important as Islamic ideology.

Arab States Aligned With US Savor Turmoil in Iran - Michael Slackman, New York Times. The rancorous dispute over Iran’s presidential election could turn into a win-win for Arab leaders aligned with Washington who in the past have complained bitterly that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was destabilizing the region and meddling in Arab affairs, political analysts and former officials around the region said. The good-news thinking goes like this: With Mr. Ahmadinejad remaining in office, there is less chance of substantially improved relations between Tehran and Washington, something America’s Arab allies feared would undermine their interests. At the same time, the electoral conflict may have weakened Iran’s leadership at home and abroad, forcing it to focus more on domestic stability, political analysts and former officials said. “When Iran is strong and defiant they don’t like her and when Iran is closer to the West they don’t like her,” said Adnan Abu Odeh, a former adviser to King Hussein of Jordan.

Iran Envoys Disinvited From July 4 Festivities - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. So much for "hot dog diplomacy." The White House announced yesterday that it had withdrawn invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend Fourth of July festivities at US embassies around the world. The move is the first tangible penalty the United States has imposed against the Iranian government in the wake of the brutal crackdown of demonstrations over the disputed presidential elections. The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations for nearly three decades, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently authorized the invitations as a way of reaching out to the Islamic republic. US officials said no Iranian diplomats thus far had responded to the invitations. "July 4th allows us to celebrate the freedom and the liberty we enjoy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. Freedom to assemble peacefully. Freedom of the press. So I don't think it's surprising that nobody's signed up to come."

Bit by Careful Bit, Obama Toughens Stance on Iran - Helene Cooper, New York Times. In his first public comments in the aftermath of Iran’s elections, President Obama pledged early last week to “continue to pursue a tough, direct dialogue” between the United States and the Iranian government. Fast-forward eight days, hundreds of thousands of Iranian protesters, a vicious crackdown and one haunting videotaped death of a 26-year-old Iranian woman. At a White House news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Obama was unsparing in his criticism of the Iranian government’s handling of the post-election demonstrations. Pressed by a reporter about whether he would still try to engage Iranian officials, Mr. Obama sounded a little less emphatic and a lot less certain. “That’s a choice the Iranians are going to have to make,” he said.

The Sounds of Silence on Iran - Mona Eltahawy, Washington Post opinion. Do you hear the silence from the Arab world over events in Iran? Let's start with Arab leaders, who are experts at vote rigging -- if they hold elections at all. What could they possibly say about the Iranian election, or the allegations of vote fraud, without sounding hypocritical? Nor would they rush to congratulate longtime nemesis Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the leader of a regional rival with nuclear ambitions. The Arabs are quiet, but their silence is surely tempered with discomfort. The demographics of most Arab nations mirror those of Iran: The majority of Arabs are young. It's likely that many young Arabs watching thousands of Iranians demanding to be heard, Arabs who are suffocating under dictators of their own, thought, "That's me."

Iran's Democrats Deserve Full Support - Garry Kasparov, Wall Street Journal opinion. Regardless of its short-term outcome, the Green Revolution in Iran is already a tremendously important event. Iranian citizens are risking their lives to defend their votes and giving the lie to the idea that democracy cannot sprout in hostile soil without external influence. This is of great relevance to people living in autocracies, especially in Russia, my home country. The Iranian dictatorship is harvesting the bitter fruit of its own policies of radicalization. For decades it exploited fanatical religious beliefs and hosted mass demonstrations. Now these forces are turning against the regime. Citizens who once chanted "Death to America" now call for the blood of Ayatollah Khamenei. This is encouraging news, but autocrats learn from each other and from history how to hold onto power. Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sees not a great reformer in Mikhail Gorbachev but a leader who was too weak to hold the Soviet Union together. Others have learned from China's Tiananmen crackdown the value of brutal force. So it is interesting that in the midst of the upheaval in Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a trip to the Kremlin.

Iran 2.0 - Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal opinion. Mark down the Iranian people as an inconvenient truth. Those who have become close followers of the Iranian nuclear-weapon program -- now approaching its fifth anniversary of Western wheel-spinning in the Persian sand -- know that the menu of options on the table has been limited. One was bomb Iran. No need to rehearse the reasons given for not doing that, other than the clear understanding that the West simply won't do it. Two was sanctions, mainly a gasoline embargo. Again, the main show-stopper is that the Western powers won't do it. Thus, the default option - talks. The talks began in September 2003, with the US assenting to a "EU-3" negotiating team of Britain, France and Germany. These all-stars gave Iran until the end of the following month to tell all. Nearly five years later it's still just blah, blah, blah.

THE LONG WAR / HOMELAND SECURITY

Bill Increasing Homeland Security's Budget Passes House - Associated Press. The House passed, 389 to 37, a $44 billion spending bill last night that awards the Homeland Security Department a 7 percent budget increase, with money for more border patrol agents and for anti-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia. As part of a GOP campaign against President Obama's order to close the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the bill requires the department to conduct threat assessments for the terrorism suspects being held there. It also requires that the department ensure that detainees are placed on its "no-fly" list and denied immigration benefits including admission into the United States and refugee status. Those moves complement steps to block the release of Guantanamo detainees into the United States contained in a newly enacted war-funding bill.

US Policies Criticized by UN Rights Watchdog - Colum Lynch, Washington Post. The United Nations' top human rights advocate, Navanethem Pillay, on Wednesday appealed to the Obama administration to release Guantanamo Bay inmates or try them in a court of law, and said officials who authorized the use of "torture" must be held accountable. In her most detailed statement on US detention policy, the South African lawyer criticized President Obama's plan to hold some terrorism suspects in detention indefinitely without a trial. She also called for a probe of officials involved in the Bush administration's harsh interrogation program. "People who order or inflict torture cannot be exonerated, and the roles of certain lawyers, as well as doctors who have attended torture sessions, should also be scrutinized," Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement dedicated to victims of torture.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Some Great Reward - Washington Times editorial. The House Armed Services Committee's version of the 2010 Defense Department authorization bill is set effectively to kill the National Security Personnel System. This Rumsfeld-era reform was intended to bring market discipline to the federal government's most sprawling department, but in practice it turned into another bureaucratic muddle. The current draft of the authorization bill moves some 205,000 Defense Department employees covered by NSPS back to the familiar General Schedule over the course of a year. Few will mourn the transition. NSPS sought to link pay to performance, a basic market principle that fomented bitter opposition by labor unions. It was supposed to create an efficient, high-achieving work force and make government employment competitive with the private sector. But the system in practice was balky and unworkable. Measuring performance required writing lengthy annual employee evaluations for even the most elementary job positions and establishing objective metrics for job performance better measured by the subjective judgment of managers. Awarding incentive pay required senior leaders to spend around a month out of every year sitting on pay-pool panels evaluating the performance of hundreds of employees they never met or supervised, who were often in noncomparable jobs. This took the senior leaders away from their critical tasks (the nation is at war, remember?) to dicker over which of these anonymous people might deserve a fraction of a percent more incentive pay than a co-worker. Ironically the GS incentive system turned out to be more fair and flexible.

AFRICA

US Sends Weapons to Help Somali Government Repel Rebels Tied to Al-Qaeda - Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post. The United States has sent a shipment of weapons and ammunition to the government of Somalia, according to a US official who said the move signals the Obama administration's desire to thwart a takeover of the Horn of Africa nation by Islamist rebels with alleged ties to al-Qaeda. The shipment arrived in the capital, Mogadishu, this month, according to the official, who is helping craft a new US policy on Somalia and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "A decision was made at the highest level to ensure the government does not fall and that everything is done to strengthen government security forces to counter the rebels," the official said.

Fresh Nightmares in Congo's Drive Against Rwandans - Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post. A Congolese military operation against Rwandan rebels who have caused years of conflict in eastern Congo is unleashing fresh horrors across this region's rolling green hills. The mission, backed logistically by UN peacekeepers and politically by the United States, aims to disband the remaining 7,000 or so Rwandan Hutu rebels who fled into eastern Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. But since the operation began in January, villagers have recounted nightmarish stories that raise questions about whether the military action will ultimately cause more destruction than it prevents. At least half a million people have fled a rebel campaign of village burnings and retaliatory killings, including a massacre of more than 100 people in which several civilians were decapitated. At the same time, people are also fleeing the advance of their own predatory army - a toxic mishmash of mostly unpaid, underfed, ill-trained former militiamen churned into the military after various peace deals.

AMERICAS

Crime Threatens Democracy, Mexico’s President Warns - Associated Press. President Felipe Calderón said Wednesday that the future of democracy in Mexico was at stake in the government’s fight against official corruption and organized crime. He also criticized politicians whom he accused of wanting to return to the era when drug gangs were tolerated. Mr. Calderón also called for making legislators more accountable to the public. He proposed reducing the number of federal lawmakers and allowing them to serve more than one term, making them eligible to face the judgment of voters by running for re-election. Speaking at a conference on security, the president gave a scathing appraisal about how far corruption had reached into the Mexican government.

A Dissident Deflected - Washington Post editorial. For its winners, the National Endowment for Democracy's annual Democracy Award can mean a brief respite from a dangerous life as a dissident: a trip to Washington, attention from Congress and the media, and - during the Bush and Clinton administrations - an Oval Office meeting or statement of support from the president. No such luck for this year's honorees, who are five leaders of Cuba's pro-democracy movement. Two of them - Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera and Jorge Luis García Pérez - were detained in the Cuban town of Placetas on Tuesday when they joined a peaceful meeting of the Rosa Parks Women's Movement for Civil Rights. A third, Librado Linares García, who is already imprisoned, was moved to a punishment cell before yesterday's Capitol Hill award ceremony. None were able to travel to Washington. They have been represented here by Bertha Atúnez, sister of Jorge Luis García Pérez. And Ms. Atúnez, an Afro-Cuban who was active in the Rosa Parks movement before she was forced into exile a year ago, has been snubbed by President Obama.

ASIA PACIFIC

US-China Military Talks Resume - Andrew Jacobs, New York Times. Chinese and American officials on Wednesday gave a positive assessment of their military talks aimed at addressing the growing nuclear threat from North Korea and a series of naval skirmishes that have marred relations between the countries. The two days of dialogue were the first military talks since December, when China broke off annual military exchanges to protest a $6.5 billion arms deal between the United States and Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. Although there were no measurable achievements, both sides agreed to another round of high-level military talks next month intended to ease tensions that have been heightened by China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

US Objects to China’s Web Filtering - Saul Hansell, New York Times. The Obama administration lodged a formal protest on Wednesday with the Chinese government over its plan to force all computers sold in China to come with software that blocks access to certain Web sites. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Ron Kirk, the trade representative, sent a letter to officials in two Chinese ministries asking them to rescind a rule about the software that is set to take effect on July 1. Chinese officials have said that the filtering software, known as Green Dam-Youth Escort, is meant to block pornography and other “unhealthy information.” In part, the American officials’ complaint framed this as a trade issue, objecting to the burden put on computer makers to install the software with little notice. But it also raised broader questions about whether the software would lead to more censorship of the Internet in China and restrict freedom of expression.

EUROPE

Kosovo Ex-Prime Minister Arrested on War Crimes - Dan Bilefsky and Matthew Branwasser, New York Times. The former prime minister of Kosovo, Agim Ceku, a former rebel commander wanted in Serbia on war crimes charges, has been arrested in Bulgaria, Bulgarian officials announced Wednesday. The Bulgarian Interior Ministry said Mr. Ceku had been detained based on an Interpol arrest warrant initiated by Serbia as he crossed the border from Macedonia on Tuesday. Kamen Mihov, a Bulgarian prosecutor in charge of international legal issues, said a court would decide by Friday whether to extend Mr. Ceku’s detention by 40 days - during which he could be extradited to Serbia - or to release him. Serbia has accused Mr. Ceku of committing war crimes during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, when he was a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group that used guerrilla tactics to fight against Serbia’s rule of Kosovo.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Battlefield Can Be an Unforgiving Teacher - Janet Maslin, New York Times book review of The Unforgiving Minute by Craig M. Mullaney.

Soldiers of Misfortune - James Glanz, New York Times book review of Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage by Donovan Campbell.

A Counterinsurgency Primer - Max Boot, Wall Street Journal book review of The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.

Reluctant Warriors - The Economist book review of both The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas Ricks and The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.

BOOKS

The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the U.S. Military for Modern Wars - David H. Ucko.

Confronting insurgent violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has recognized the need to "re-learn" counterinsurgency. But how has the Department of Defense with its mixed efforts responded to this new strategic environment? Has it learned anything from past failures? In The New Counterinsurgency Era, David Ucko examines DoD's institutional obstacles and initially slow response to a changing strategic reality.

Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda - Thomas P. Odom.

In July 1994, Thomas P. Odom was part of the US Embassy team that responded to the Goma refugee crisis. He witnessed the deaths of 70,000 refugees in a single week. In the previous three months of escalating violence, the Rwandan genocide had claimed 800,000 dead. Now, in this vivid and unsettling new book, Odom offers the first insider look at these devastating events before, during, and after the genocide.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage - Donovan Campbell.

Donovan Campbell, first as a Marine and then as a writer, shows us that the dominant emotion in war isn’t hatred or anger or fear. It’s love. His story stands as a poignant tribute to his men–their courage, their dedication, their skill, and their love for one another, even unto death.

The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose - Anthony Zinni and Tony Koltz

The intellectual complement to Zinni and Clancy's bestselling Battle Ready (2004), a narrative memoir salted with specific policy recommendations, this volume provides the former US Central Command chief's analysis of America's current global position. Zinni begins by asserting that America's status as "the most powerful nation in the history of the planet" has created a de facto empire. The US has no choice: if it fails to take the lead, nothing significant happens. At the same time, Americans must recognize that, in a global age, there can be no zero-sum games.

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education - Craig Mullaney

The Unforgiving Minute is the ultimate's soldier's book - universal in its raw emotion and its understanding of the larger issues of life and death. Mullaney, a master storyteller, plunges the depths of self-doubt, endurance, and courage. The result: a riveting, suspenseful human story, beautifully told. This is a book written under fire - a lyrical, spellbinding tale of war, love, and courage. The Unforgiving Minute is the Three Cups of Tea of soldiering.

Great Powers: America and the World after Bush - Thomas P.M. Barnett

In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon’s New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation’s admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett’s second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book’s principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping - and important - book of all.

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - David Kilcullen

A remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Thomas Ricks

Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.

Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips

Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.

Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor

This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.

The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West

From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.

Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson

After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key US and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward

Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.

We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway

In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy

The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.

Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz

Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.